Wednesday, October 13, 2010

A Very Scary Window Treatment

Halloween is quickly approaching, and my daughter keeps reminding me that we simply MUST decorate. Let me tell you though, in our 6 years in this house we have yet to get ONE trick or treater. In desperation to hand out "something" to "someone", I make up treat bags and get Ruby to walk them over to our neighbours! We do have a couple of kids in our immediate neighbourhood, (like 3), but they tend to go to bigger and better places, (ie, the next town over) to get their trick or treat on!

Trick or treaters or not though, the Toadstill WILL be decorated for Halloween! Here is my favourite Halloween decorating trick...the Jack O Lantern window!

I came across this fabulous idea last Halloween, and of course, in the vast expanse of the internet I don't know where...please let me know if I stole it from you!

So...measure your window...in my case we use a picture window facing the street...then tape your bristol board together as need be, (or cut down). I need four sheets to do my big window.

Then draw on a scary face...use a white crayon to do this

cut it all out

hang it up, (this is where the copious amounts of tape come into play)!

enjoy the spooky shadows cast on the walls of your house!

and line the empty space with tissue paper, using tape to tape it on the back of your bristol board.

*please excuse this blurry picture...it was pouring rain outside when I took it!

Now, when it gets dark, get a light to shine behind it and go outside and admire your handiwork, (oh...take the kids out with you)! I had to laugh when I saw how horrendously evil our window looks...positively spooky! You don't have to make yours quite so evil looking...a happy pumpkin face would be nice too!

12 comments:

When my son was much younger, he wanted to start decorating on October 1 and put up one new thing every day! I had to get real inventive, real quick! I used halloween ribbons and put streamers in the inside doorways. We built spider's webs with clotheslines and then made chenille stem and bead spiders to hang as babies under the big ugly purchased spider I found one year. Bats hung from every chandelier. We made up stories and illustrated them and hung them up on the fridge door with scary magnets we made from shrinky dink. We brought in gnarly branches from an old apple tree and made ghosts and bats from netting and paper ribbon to hang on them. And we made an autumn potpourri that we tied up in netting bags and decorated with spider rings.I was so happy the year he decided to forego the decorating process-- now I miss it.

We don't get anyone knocking either. I think our drive is a bit scary in the dark and there is also the chance that they might meet the hounds of the baskerville. We do make our own decorations and get dressed up. Love the idea of the window decoration. Only passing foxes and bats would see it here if we did it, but hey, why not!

I don't usually get any Trick or Treaters either, but this year i am lining my walkway with lit pumpkins and leaving my gate wiiiddde open.... I really hope that will help... Wonderful window treatment ! Don't you LOVE this time of year !! light and love

We're so far back off the highway, we don't decorate. The first couple years here we had 2, but they haven't come for a couple years. Now that Ella's 4 we drive to grandma's house in Beachburg and hit her street. Ella would like this decoration a lot!

I think the "original" idea for this was in the October issue of Family Fun magazine last year (although others probably had thought of it before). Anyway, after the article was published, I started to see it on all sorts of blogs. It's such a fun idea!